California wildfires now 100 miles wide as death toll reaches 40

While wildfires are still burning powerfully in parts of northern California, some of the tens of thousands of evacuees are getting antsy to return to homes that are not under immediate threat. Others want to see if they still have homes to return to.

But authorities are staying cautious in the face of blazes that have now killed at least 40 people and destroyed at least 5,700 homes. "We're on pins and needles," Travis Oglesby, who evacuated from his home in Santa Rosa, said to Sonoma county sheriff Robert Giordano yesterday. "We're hearing about looting."

Although some evacuees were returning home in Mendocino County, the latest estimates were that about 100,000 people were under evacuation orders as the fires burned for a sixth day. Plans were in the works to reopen communities, but they were not ready to be put into effect, said Dave Teter, a deputy director with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Douglas and Marian Taylor stood outside their apartment complex yesterday in Santa Rosa with their two dogs and a sign that said "End evacuation now". Their building was unharmed at the edge of the evacuation zone with a police barricade set up across the street. The couple said they are spending about USD 300 per day to rent a motel and eat out, and they want to return home because the fire does not appear to threaten their home.

At an evacuation centre at the fair grounds in the Sonoma county city of Petaluma, volunteers sorted through mounds of donated baby wipes, diapers, pillows, shoes and clothing.